The purpose of this project will be to undertake an intensive-level neighborhood survey of cultural and architectural resources in the Town of Dedham. This project will be structured to provide professional cultural and architectural resource survey expertise to the community. A preliminary priority list can be viewed on the right by clicking "Priority List Review".
Project Goals:
- To conduct a neighborhood survey to assess and document approximately 115 selected cultural and architectural resources, focusing on the commercial properties in Dedham Square and the mixed commercial and residential area bounded by East Street, Brookdale Avenue, High Street, Milton Street, and Walnut Street, following Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) survey standards and methodology.
- To identify contexts for National Register evaluation and to apply the National Register criteria to all resources identified in the survey.
- To submit to MHC a list of individual properties and/or districts that are recommended for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
The community-wide survey will consider the full range of cultural resources in terms of period, theme, property type, architectural form and style, and geographic distribution. The survey will consider all periods of architectural and historic development from the period of first colonial European presence to circa 1970. Significant themes of historical and architectural development will be identified, and resources will be related to these themes.
To learn more about the Dedham Historic Districts Commission/Historical Commission, please visit their Town page here: www.dedham-ma.gov/government/historic-districts-commission.
For more information about this Historic Survey, please contact Senior Planner Michelle Tinger at mtinger@dedham-ma.gov or (781) 751-9244.
Founded in 1635, the Town of Dedham has a well-documented historic urban core in the Dedham Village National Register Historic District (2006), and three local historic districts (1971 & 2007) administered by the combined Historic District Commission/Historical Commission (HDC/HC). Preservation efforts focused exclusively on the old town center in Precinct One until 2018, when town meeting approved funds for the Mother Brook – East Dedham Corridor Study to document the remains of the town’s 19th-century textile industry. This Study was completed in August 2020, and its recommendation for listing the Mother Brook Canal on the National register of Historic Places is currently being evaluated at the Massachusetts Historic Commission.
The High Street – Upper East Street Neighborhood Survey will build upon the previous study by connecting East Dedham with Dedham Square, the historic commercial center adjacent to the existing NR and local districts. The 16 to 20 one-and two-story buildings that make up Dedham Square range in age from the 1790s to the 1940s and have never been surveyed. All are under development pressure as one by one buildings in or near the Square have been purchased, demolished, and replaced with new, larger structured in contemporary styles. On the half mile of Washington Street that bisects the Square, in the last five years there have been three teardowns, one a historic structure from the 1770s, and five more properties slated for redevelopment. Though the Town has made a considerable investment in the character and functionality of this critical location (Dedham Square Design Guidelines 2018), measured to protect any of the remaining buildings have yet to be considered for want of objective information about their historical significance.
The rest of the area to be covered in this survey extends from Dedham Square. In the west, north along East Street to the neighborhood adjacent to Brookdale Cemetery, along High Street to Milton Street, south to Walnut Street to include both sides of East Street north of the Endicott Estate. On High Street east of Dedham Square is another commercial node, while north of High (identified on maps as “Lower East Street”) are a number of small cottages, possibly once workers’ housing, that date from the early 19th century according to Town records.
The southern portion of the proposed survey areas is also at risk for teardowns. An Arts & Crafts neighborhood from the early 1900s, designed by the architect Henry Bailey Alden, was intact until 2018 when one house was replaced with four on a single lot. The proposed survey area contains some of Dedham’s oldest historic assets, including the 1636 Fairbanks House (DED.391 NR), the 1735 Metcalf House (DED.12) with its mid-19th-century carriage house/barn, and the 1812 Frarye House (DED.11), both of the latter inventory forms in need of updating. There are several mid-19th-century houses associated with owners or high-ranking administrators of the Mother Brook mills and many Colonial Revival homes in the area, as well as the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary and its rectory.
The Dedham HDC/HC has identified the High Street-Upper East Street neighborhood as an area where there are potentially significant historic resources that may be threatened in the near future and where further information is needed to guide future protection efforts. Having recently been designated a Certified Local Government, the Town has committed to the survey and protection of important historic assets throughout the Town, including both the built environment and possible archaeological traces of indigenous peoples new Wigwam Pond. In the future, a community-wide survey plan to establish the objectives, scope, phasing, and budgeting of comprehensive survey efforts, as recommended by the 2018-2022 State Historic Preservation Plan, would be an appropriate next step.
